TUI problems

nala opens a CLI instead of the TUI

Symptom: running nala produces command output rather than the agent interface, or reports an unknown command.

Likely causes

1. The build predates the TUI entry point.
2. The invocation name was not detected as nala.

Both nala and wmux point at the same bundle, and the invocation name routes subcommands. Some paths are reachable only when invoked as nala.

Safe diagnostic

nala --version
nala doctor

Repair: update to the current preview and retry from a new terminal.

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The composer accepts input but nothing happens

Symptom: you type, submit, and the transcript never moves.

Likely causes

1. No provider is authenticated.
2. The session never reached the daemon.

Expected evidence: the header should move through acknowledgement into a thinking state. Chrome is gated on real evidence, so a header that never leaves its initial state means submission was not acknowledged.

Repair: check the provider first — see provider problems — then the daemon.

When not to retry: do not submit the same message repeatedly. Each submission queues; you will end up with the request pending several times over. See delivery lifecycle.

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It says unknown and I want a real answer

Symptom: delivery or status shows unknown.

This is not a bug. The classifier reports state from observable evidence and declines to guess when the evidence is absent. unknown means "I cannot prove either way," which is more useful than a confident wrong answer.

Repair: look at the agent directly. If it is a provider pane, read the pane.

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A turn will not cancel

Symptom: /stop does not end the in-flight turn.

Likely cause: the provider is not responding to cancellation.

Repair: /stop, then inspect the provider's own pane. If the provider process is wedged, the session is the level to act at, not the TUI.

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Scrollback or rendering looks wrong

Symptom: the transcript renders oddly, duplicates, or scrolls unexpectedly.

Context: the TUI renders diff-based frames and maintains a conversation projection that deduplicates prompt echoes and coalesces streaming and tool lifecycle events. Rendering issues are usually terminal-capability related.

Safe diagnostic

nala doctor

Repair: try a different terminal emulator to isolate capability problems. An explicit edge-case registry handles known degradations, so a reproducible rendering failure in a common terminal is worth reporting with the terminal name and version.

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Errors mention DAEMON_*

Transport errors are distinct from model errors by design:

These are infrastructure, not the model refusing. Go to daemon problems.

Related

• TUI overview
• Sessions
• Daemon problems